With the spread of broadband, digital content distribution services are expected to become increasingly prevalent. Currently, settlement for content provided to a user is mainly made by credit card. Since the user is required to notify the content distributor of his/her credit card number when joining the distributor's service, many users are anxious (about security.
Patent Document 1 discloses a settlement method for purchasing goods with a mobile information terminal. With this method, at the time of purchasing goods, the mobile information terminal transmits a user ID and the like to a service provision apparatus that provides the goods, and the service provision apparatus transmits a goods settlement request that includes the user ID to a communications enterprise's apparatus. Proxy settlement for the goods is performed between the communications enterprise and the service provider, and settlement for the goods is performed subsequently between the communications enterprise and the user.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid Open Application No. 2001-134684    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid Open Application No. 2002-298041